Naiad

In Greek mythology, the naiads (in ancient Greek Ναϊάδες Naiádes, Ναίδες Naídes or Νάιτιδες Náitides from νάω 'to flow') were the nymphs of the bodies of fresh water —fountains, wells, springs, streams and streams— and they incarnated the divinity of the watercourse they inhabited, in the same way that the Oceanids were the divine personifications of the rivers and some very old spirits that inhabited the stagnant waters of swamps, ponds and lagoons as in the pre-Mycenaean Lerna of the Argolis. Almost always the naiads are daughters of a river god, or even of the Ocean itself (thus being confused with the oceanids, whose main difference with the naiads is that they are wives of gods, not of local heroes).

Mythology

Although the Naiads were associated with small freshwater streams, the Oceanids with rivers, and the Nereids with saltwater, there was some overlap because the Greeks thought of the world's waters as a single percolating system. from the sea to deep cavernous spaces in the bosom of the earth from where it rose already sweet in filtrations and springs. Arethusa the nymph of a spring could make her way through the subterranean currents of the Peloponnese to surface on the island of Sicily.

In their capacity as nymphs, naiads are female beings endowed with great longevity but mortal. A naiad's essence was linked to her body of water so that if it dried up she would die. Although Walter Burkert points out that «when in the Iliad (xx.4-9) Zeus calls the gods to assembly on Mount Olympus, it is not only the famous Olympians who come but also all the nymphs and all the rivers; only Oceanus remains in place" (Burkert 1985). Greek listeners recognized this impossibility as hyperbole by the poet who proclaimed the universal power of Zeus over the ancient natural world: "worship of these deities" confirms Burkert "is limited only by the fact that they are inseparably identified with a specific locality.

Their genealogy changes according to the mythographer and the legend consulted: Homer calls them "daughters of Zeus" but in other places it is stated that they were daughters of Oceanus. It is more common to consider them daughters of the river-god in which they inhabit. His genealogy in any case is varied. The water nymph associated with a particular fountain was known throughout Europe in places with no direct relation to Greece, surviving in Celtic wells in northwest Europe that were later rededicated to saints, and in medieval Melusina.

All famous fountains and springs have their naiad or their group of naiads normally considered sisters and their own legend. They were often the object of archaic local cults worshiped as essential to fertility and human life. Young men coming of age dedicated their childish locks to the naiad from the local spring. Healing virtues were often attributed to the naiads: the sick drank the water to which they were associated or, more rarely, bathed in them. This was the case of Lerna where animals were also ritually drowned. Oracles could be located next to ancient sources.

Naiads could also be dangerous. Sometimes bathing in its waters was considered a sacrilege and the naiads retaliated against the offender. Seeing them could also be a reason for punishment, which usually brought as punishment the madness of the unfortunate witness. Hylas, a crew member of the Argo, was kidnapped by naiads fascinated by his beauty. Naiads were also known for their jealousy. Theocritus told the story of the jealousy of a naiad in which a shepherd Daphnis was the lover of Nomia to whom he was unfaithful on several occasions until she blinded him forever in revenge.

At the origin of many genealogies such as those of Icarius, Ericthonius or Thyestes appears a naiad. When a mythical king was believed to have married a naiad and founded a city Robert Graves offers a sociopolitical reading: the Hellenic newcomers justified their presence by taking the naiad of the fountain as their wife, as in the pre-myth story of Aristaeus in which Hipseus, a king of the lapites, married the nymph Clidanope with whom he had Cyrene. Among the immortals there is a parallel to the love affairs and rapes of Zeus which, according to Graves, record the supplanting of ancient local cults by other Olympians (Graves 1955). Aristeo had an unusual experience with the naiads: when his bees died in Thessaly he went to consult them. His aunt Arethusa invited him to go under the surface of the water where he was washed in a perpetual spring and received counsel. A mortal but related had drowned being sent as a messenger in this way to obtain advice and favors from the naiads for his people.

Types of Naiads

We will have to specify that the cataloging of the naiads according to the body of fresh water is an invention of the Hellenistic poets, who tried to decorate their works with poetic resources to be innovative. In the mythological corpus they are usually mentioned simply as generic nymphs, and in most cases they are the wives of a local hero and the daughter of a river god. The crenean and pegean naiads (rarely so called) are by far the most common, and of which there are attested local cults associated with their name. As has already been said, at least in one source (Odyssey, XVII 204) the nymphs (understood as naiads) are named as daughters of Zeus, without further details. Finally, this is the denomination, perhaps artificial, of the types of naiad nymphs according to the type of fresh water currents with which they are linked in myths:

1. From sources: creneas (Κρηναιαιαι) or crénides (Κρηνιαδες)
2. Of the swamps: heleades ()λειονομοι)
3. From lakes: limnades (Ḥιμναδες) or limnátides (Διμνητιδες, θνατιδες)
4. From springs: pegeas (γγγαιαι)
5. From rivers: potatomids (κοταμιδες)

Catalog of naiads

Three criteria have been taken into account to prepare this list. The first and most obvious is that the nymph has to be explicitly mentioned as a naiad in the written sources. The second category includes nymphs that could be generic, but are associated with a freshwater source. Finally, the nymphs daughters of the river gods will also be included in this list. Nameless collective naiads are not included in this list, but if they are individual nymphs they will appear at the bottom of the list. Be that as it may, this is an exhaustive list of all the naiads that literature has given us:

Nameless naiads

Finally, naiads without a name are included, although in other sources they may have:

• The mother of three children by Tiestes, called Aglaus, Calileonte and Orcomeno
• The wife of Endimion
• Quiron's wife's nayade.
• The Partion's Nayade
• The Najade of Serifos, wife of Magnes and mother of Dictis and Polidectes